Cyrillaceae. 



189 



Cliftonia. Buckwheat Tree. 

 (Family Cyrillaceae). 



Shrubs: evergreen. Twigs 

 rather slender and 3-sided: pith 

 small, more or less 3-sided, con- 

 / rv \ tinuous, pink. Buds small, ses- 



sile, solitary, ovoid, with about 2 

 exposed scales. Leaf-scars alter- 

 nate, shield-shaped, often acutely 

 angled at the sides, fringed at 

 the top: bundle-trace 1, trans- 

 verse, sometimes broken: stipule- 

 scars lacking. Leaves obovate- 

 oblanceolate, entire, subsessile, 

 thick and nearly veinless. 



The single species of Cliftonia 

 has been known as C. nitida and, 

 more commonly, C. ligustrina. The 

 specific name monophylla which it 

 bears now has been restored of 

 late years because it was applied 

 to the plant before either of the 

 others, though under another ge- 

 nus, Ptelea. to which Lamarck referred the plant because of 

 the winged fruits to which it owes also its common name of 

 buckwheat tree. 

 Twigs gray, glabrous: leaves puberulent, glaucous. 



C. monophylla. 



